With the dust slowly settling
over Thursday’s tumultuous AGM, let us take a brief moment to digest the state
of play at Ibrox;
The Rangers (International
Football Club PLC) board is comprised of Chief Executive Officer Graham
Wallace, Non-Executive Chairman David Somers, Finance Director Brian
Stockbridge, and the two Non-Executive directors James Easdale and Norman
Crighton.
The Rangers FC LTD company is
chaired by Alexander “Sandy” Easdale alone.
To clarify, the RIFCPLC is the
company which controls Rangers Football Club as a business, while the RFCLTD is
the sporting side controlled by significant shareholder Easdale.
All the above were democratically
voted by shareholders with exception of Sandy Easdale who is not a director of
anything, just the chair of the limited company and 26.6% shareholder himself,
making him the largest.
That is a reasonable assessment
of the situation as it now stands, with the four requisitioners P Murray, M
Murray, Wilson and Murdoch defeated in their attempts to win seats on the board
and are presumably now out of the picture. Paul did say on more than one
occasion that defeat would spell the end of his involvement, and he would bow
out if democratically beaten. We will see if that is true, but for now there is
a more pressing matter on the agenda;
Dave King.
This blog has covered Mr King on
more than one occasion. The South African-based businessman famously lost £20M
under the Sir David Murray regime, and was linked with the Blue Knights in the
summer of 2012 before Charles Green’s consortium took the club over.
With Green long since departed,
King has return significantly to the fore, with an apparent attempt in October
to appoint him as chairman. He was met by then-CEO Craig Mather and FD
Stockbridge for talks, but soon after Mather himself resigned, relegating
King’s appointment to the board as redundant.
Since then we have seen David
Somers given that role, so where does this leave King?
The problem is his involvement
with Rangers appears more tabloid inches now than hard negotiation. As recently
yesterday morning, he appeared on the back page of the Scottish Sun saying:
“Yes, I am ready to invest in Rangers.
I have no problem working with duly elected directors.”
If we ignore the fact that
another Rangers-associated individual has used yet another dubious media
source, there is the unshakable feeling that this is a further soap opera in
the making. For a start, there was the fact that only days ago he was
instructing the board to offer Paul Murray an olive branch:
“I would hope
that if this does turn out to be true they will reach out a little bit and
invite Paul Murray onto the board. I think it would help them, if their
position is secure and they know it to be secure, to at least get Paul on
board.”
First he wants Murray on the board, now he wants on himself?
Of course, no one is objecting to
the idea of King coming on board and investing his cash in the club. As stated
in previous blogs, his financial injections are exactly the kind of medicine
this club needs, and if he is truly willing to lose more cash by throwing it
into the black hole this club currently is on a financial basis, then he is
welcomed with open arms.
But why is there that nagging
feeling that this is another wild goose chase? No one truly knows how much the
man is worth, with estimates between £50M and £300M. Still a lot of cash, of
course. But when negotiations between he and Stockbridge and Mather for his
appointment as chairman seemed to spell his grooming for outright ownership,
what role would he have now?
Rangers have a chairman, and a
fully-outfitted board. It might not be every supporter’s dream team in the
boardroom, but it is pretty final.
Where does King fit in? Surely
the man is not literally going to just invest money in the club without also
getting a seat on the board? And if he does get that seat on the board, he is a
wage just like all the others until he delivers on his promises.
And it is blind faith and naive
optimism that assumes he will be true to his word.
Rangers fans have to be vigilant.
No snake oil salesmen, no liars, no smoke nor mirrors. No more blind trust – we
have our ‘team’ on and off the pitch – any new signings have to prove they can
be trusted and perform.
And that includes Dave King.